


Let's say that God is the space between two men and the Devil is the space between two men.

by fallencrest



Series: variations on the theme of Stannis' gaze [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: ADWD spoilers, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-23
Updated: 2011-10-23
Packaged: 2017-10-24 21:26:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/268062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallencrest/pseuds/fallencrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stannis considers Jon and doesn't like what he sees. The boy is too young and too headstrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's say that God is the space between two men and the Devil is the space between two men.

Stannis considers Jon and doesn't like what he sees. The boy is too young and too headstrong. The set of his jaw is too rigid and there is a hardness to his eyes which Stannis mistrusts. When he thinks no-one is looking, Jon allows his face to show his uncertainty and his brow to crease with concern. When he knows he is watched, he refuses to waver.

Stannis finds himself watching the boy more and more often, considering. He tells himself 'considering' when he means something worse which he cannot voice. He watches the boy, all the same.

Jon is skilled with a sword but just as adept when faced with problems which cannot be solved in the yard. He does not prevaricate when asked a pointed question but he thinks back over his decisions for hours afterwards, staring out over the yard. Stannis sees the sleepless nights writ on the boy's face, like scars or bruises from bouts fought with himself.

In Jon, Stannis sees the beginning and end of all his designs on the North. The boy discards him as an irrelevance and hides behind the non-partisanship offered by his order. _The Night's Watch takes no part_ and Jon will not either. He takes what Stannis offers him and crushes it to dust with his hands.

Jon gives good counsel but he does so at a price. There is always a bargain: the scales must be balanced and Jon will accept no less than he's due. There is something in Stannis which admires that, just as there is something in Stannis which admires Jon's easy victories in the yard and the way Jon has of making his men respect him, admire him, and yet still crave his friendship.

Jon does not let them get too close though and Stannis admires that, too.

They clamour to be near Jon, all of them, as though mere proximity would improve them in some way. Men have never done that to Stannis and he watches Jon as if to discover the secret of it. Perhaps it is the natural smile Jon offers when he gives words of encouragement or perhaps it is because Jon's low birth allows them to feel superior to him and respect his achievements, both at once. Stannis cannot be sure.

It alarms him, when he discovers that what Jon Snow provokes in him, more than anything, is uncertainty. He cannot gauge the boy, for all that he observes Jon's looks and weighs his actions. There is something in Jon which Stannis cannot reduce into a certain judgement: he is neither a good man nor an evil one. His decisions are not always right, in Stannis' estimation, but they are always reasoned. He is a boy but he is also a force to be reckoned with, not least because Stannis cannot stop looking. Jon catches him looking, he thinks, but Stannis does not look away.


End file.
